Unkind hour
by Teen with a pen
Summary: Dally had always had a place of refuge. A place where he could sit back and look at life a different way. The theater. No one knew, he'd've killed them if they had found out, it was his own secret. His own sanctuary. Now, on the night he's lost the only one he cared about, he comes to this place one last time to see a tragedy, escape his own, and say his last farewell.


No slash here. Just brotherhood.

Dallas' POV

Running faster than my feet could hit the pavement. My heart pounding in my ears. Broken, it beat.

' _Johnny's dead'_

I ran from the hospital room where his body, no, where _he_ lay, pretending not to hear Ponyboy crying out after me. There was no time for sympathies now. I ran through the hallways, screaming every string of profanity I could think of at anyone who was unlucky enough to cross me. I passed sleeping patients, worried families, exhausted doctors and relieved discharges, everyone I saw filling me with new hate.

Look at all of them, so happy. So full. So... _alive_ , while everything I lived for was dead. Johnny Cade, who hadn't harmed anyone (not _really,_ anyway) in his short life. Johnny Cade, whose parents had treated him like dirt when they bothered to treat him at all. Johnny Cade who was so afraid of saying the wrong thing he said almost nothing at all. Johnny Cade, everyone's kid brother. Johnny Cade, my kid brother…

Dead.

I didn't even notice when the smell of blood and latex lifted, telling me I was outside of the hospital in an ambulance parking lot. I was still crying at this point, the silent kind of crying that makes you dangerous. Blood was still caked all over my face from the rumble. A doctor started to approach me but I didn't hear what he said, my heart still pounding in my ears. "Hey you...you aren't allowed here." He said as he approached me. I looked at him without looking at him, not registering what I was doing as I took out the heater and pointed it at his face, cocking it. "I'm allowed anywhere I want," I said, and even I could tell I'd lost my mind by the way I'd said it. The doctor just looked at me in only slight fear, and I pulled the trigger. It wasn't loaded so all there was was a clicking sound. And another. And another. He skirted around me as I continued to 'shoot' him, muttering "You're outta your mind" as he hurried inside.

"Why you bother helpin' people, huh?!" I shouted after him, "It doesn't do any good!" I was yelling at nobody in particular, the problem was, no one was listening but the pavement. I refused to admit that I was broken, but the truth was I was so past that point that tears wouldn't even fall.

I looked around, lost, and started to run as I noticed some hospital security starting to come outside following that same doctor who was pointing at me. I turned a corner a block away and hid between two buildings where I knew they wouldn't see me, catching my breath but not from the short sprint. I raked my hands through my hair, feeling panic and overwhelmed-ness wash over me like they hadn't in years. I forced myself to breathe deeply and de-constrict my chest. I stood up a few minutes later, only when I trusted myself not to collapse, and started to walk the way a man might walk to a prison cell. Resigned. Resolved.

Anyone who saw me that night would've said I was wandering aimlessly. In a way, I was. I didn't know what I was going to do tonight. One thing was for sure though, I was going to figure it out.

But I had one stop to make first.

It was 110 2nd Street where my feet carried me like they'd done it a thousand times before. They had. Few would have ever expected me to come here. I'd kill them if they saw. But the tired old sign charmed me every time, and from the moment I first stepped into the building, 4 years ago, and saw what was going on, I knew I was hooked.

Tulsa performing arts center.

I stood out on the empty street to admire the sign for what I knew would be the last time. It was the same simple sign that I had looked at in disgust 4 years ago when Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had asked a favor of me. Actually, looking back, it was probably more of a punishment for a rather... _rude…_ thing I had said to a 10 years old Ponyboy the day before. Nevertheless, I was told that at 4:30 that very day, I would be taking Ponyboy to the theater to see a show as a way of showing my apologies for the...comment. (Pony had a _fascination_ with theater at the time, and it drove the gang insane.) Needless to say I was...less than happy...with this punishment, and after being told that it was either that or yard work by Mr. Curtis, I reluctantly found myself in the Tulsa Performing Arts Center that day at 4:30, grumbling and hiding my face behind my jacket, praying none of the Shepard lot would find me.

But then the show started. "A Doll House," it was called. From the moment the actress walked onto the stage until the moment she walked off, I was hooked. Locked in. Ponyboy wasn't terribly interested and over time grew to prefer the magic of the movies, while I, to this day, laughed at the idea of theater with the rest of the gang. Meanwhile, every chance I got, every bit of spare change I collected, went towards my next ticket. I don't claim to know what it was. Seeing life from a 'different perspective' or some cheesy crap like that. Maybe I just thought the costumes were pretty. Maybe it was just a nice break. Whatever it was, I couldn't stay away. It was a refuge. My own private place where there wasn't any fighting. No gangs. No Soc's to deal with. No one... to be or not to be.

I shook my head. I would miss this last opportunity if I dwelt in the past too long. I walked up the steps, into the front of the house, desperately hoping something was playing that I could catch. It was late though and those chances weren't too good. I didn't care, I just needed to be here.

Someone cleared their throat behind me, my hand instinctively went to the heater right before I registered who it was. The box office guy.

"Can I help you, son?" He asked.

"W-What?" I asked stupidly.

He raised his eyebrows. "Well, I don't really know how to tell you this kid but uh...you look, you look like you've been through the ringer."

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly, at which the man looked more confused.

"Can I, uh...you want me to call the hospital or…?"

"No," I replied with heat, cutting him off. I made dry eye contact with him. "What I need from you," I started, swallowing, "I need a ticket." Now it was the man's turn. "What?"

"You heard me." The man kind of looked around himself, dumbly, not sure what to say I guess.

"Son...are you sure you're in the right place tonight?" he raised an eyebrow quizzically.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Noooo," I started, dripping with sarcasm, "how foolish of me to look for a ticket at the _box office._ " I started laughing hysterically, on the verge of hysterics themselves as the guy looked at me, clearly, _weirded out,_ to say the least. But then, for a split second, we made eye contact and I don't know what he saw in mine (there were _a lot_ of things in them, I knew,) but his face changed to one of sympathy. All who know me know that I _despise_ sympathy, but now really wasn't the time.

"Go on in, kid." I nodded, reaching into my pocket to pull out the $17 dollars I knew it would cost, before he stopped me with a firm "No." I looked up at him. His eyes were soft. "The shows almost over, I think there's about 10 minutes left...just go on in and sit in the back. No charge."

I just nodded, both too exhausted to refuse charity, and also afraid that upon speaking, my dam would break.

My last show...and I wouldn't even get to see it in full.

I swallowed back the lump in my throat, walking towards the entrance into the auditorium, when I stopped, and without turning around, addressed the man again. "What's showing?"

"Romeo and Juliet"

Oh. _no._

I had heard of Romeo and Juliet. Ponyboy had read it once for school and had talked to me and Johnnycake about it, but I wasn't really listening because to tell you the truth there was this chick there and she was _fine._ I knew only the very basics. Two people were in love but they couldn't be together, and they died.

' _What a fitting show for this night.'_ The dark thought came unbidden into my head.

I slipped quietly into the back of the theater, and as the man had said, the performance was going on. By the looks of it, Romeo was about to take the poison as I slipped into the familiar seat with a deep breath.

" _A dateless bargain to engrossing death!"_ Romeo cried, holding his Juliet in his arms. " _Here's to my love!"_

From those first words I was locked in, my mind drinking them in a way they never had before. I absorbed every action, every sound, every pause. Romeo drank the poison, seizing his throat as though choking and making raspy sounds. " _O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss, I die."_ I watched Romeo fall 'lifeless' onto his lady. The friar then ran in.

" _Alack, alack, what blood is this? What mean these masterless and gory swords To lie discolored by this place of peace? Romeo! O, pale!—Who else? And steeped in blood?—Ah, what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance!"_

" _I do remember well where I should be, and there I am."_ She smiled, obliviously looking around, " _Where is my Romeo?"_ Just as she noticed his body sprawled across her lap, and let out a strangled gasp, and a loud sob so heart-broken that even I was moved. The Friar ran to her side, trying his best to comfort her, but then hearing offstage voices.

" _I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep. A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents. Come, I'll dispose of thee Among a sisterhood of holy nuns. the watch is coming. Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay!"_

I watched as Juliet sobbed, not budging, holding Romeo in her arms. " _Go, get thee hence, for I will not away."_ The Friar ran out.

There was more noise offstage as Juliet realised what her love had done. " _Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief."_ I watched her curiously, wondering what was about to happen. See, at _this_ point of the story Ponyboy had told me was about where that chick had leaned over to talk to somebody inside a car and...well, let's just say the view was much more interesting than listening to Ponyboy so I tuned him out. So, I had no idea what was about to happen, but had a feeling it would not be good.

" _O happy dagger, This is thy sheath."_ Along with the rest of the audience, I gasped as she sunk Romeo's dagger into her chest.

" _There, rust, and let me die."_ And she fell on top of Romeo's body.

I had never truly been frozen until that moment.

I had known that Romeo and Juliet died in the end of this play, but never that they had killed themselves. They had died of their own accord, thinking that life was not worth living if what they had lived for was gone. They had died...for love.

And suddenly, something clicked in my mind. A thought. It grew into an idea. A plan.

It was only in that moment that I remembered I still had a heater in my pocket. I looked down at it, and felt it. The coolness of the metal. I was so entranced by it's promise that I didn't hear a word of the rest of the scene. Characters came and went, talking about the incidents that I had just watched. But I didn't hear a word. I watched Juliet and Romeo, lying there. In that moment, they weren't two pretty-faced actors. They were two lovers, finally together because that was all that mattered to them. With each other.

And suddenly, I knew what I would do after the show.

I looked back down at the promising heater. ' _It's not quite a dagger, but…'_ I grinned a grin of no amusement whatsoever, recalling a Juliet line in the play, ' _...t'will serve.'_

If Juliet could do it, then so could I. I would be with Johnny again. My little brother. Tonight, Verona would be Tulsa. Instead of two lovers, there would be two brothers. I thought back to something the Friar had called it; ' _Unkind Hour.'_

So perfectly fitting.

And so, just as the prince began to speak, addressing all characters of the show, I myself stood up, listening to what I figured would be the last words of the play.

" _A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head."_

Two steps, and I'm in the aisle, on my way out.

" _Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things."_

I laughed grimly to myself.

" _Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd."_

Almost out the door, my back to him, I raised an eyebrow, provoked for thought, but didn't stop walking.

" _For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet, and her Romeo."_

This time, I did freeze. My mind, suddenly, _furiously_ , amused. This time, I couldn't hold back the dark laugh. It bellowed loud and clear for everyone in the theatre to hear. I'm sure I got some dirty looks, but I never turned around to see them. I was already out into the lobby, and then the street, still laughing like the mad man I had become, only stopping a block away from the theatre I had loved to pull myself together.

Thoughts of the gang entered my mind. Of Steve, sleeping who knows where tonight because his drunk old man kicked him out of his own home, _again._ Of Two-Bit, out playing poker or getting drunk, who told jokes and laughed because it was better than crying for the dad who had left him and his family with nothing and wouldn't be coming back. Of the Curtis brothers, the best, kindest boys in the world, their parents, who had never hurt nobody, ripped away from them in the worst way possible and left with a lifetime of pain. I thought of myself, the cold-hearted monster that no 17 year old kid was supposed to be. And Johnny… Johnny Cade, the one who deserved the best out of all of us,

Dead.

" _Never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet, and her Romeo."_

I shook my head with another grim chuckle, feeling a single tear slip out of my eye. ' _I can think of a few.'_

And with that, my feet were in motion, carrying me at a sprint out into the dark, tragic, Tulsa night.


End file.
